An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eleventh, twelfth, & thirteenth chapters of…

Oh Divine Love! whither art thou gone? hast thou left the earth as unworthy of thy beauty and glory? ¹Oh! that thou wouldest come again unto the hearts of the Saints, and bind them together! The want of the bonds of Love every one complains of, Oh! those soul refreshing, and soul-ravishing meetings that we were wont to have. But especially more publicly, we find the bonds of Love quite gone, and quite broken: read but over the 1 Cor. 13. and see the effects of Love there, ²and by that you will find the bonds of Love quite to be gone; Love, the Scripture tells us, it thinks no evil, it makes the best interpretation of things that can be; Now ⟨p. 73⟩surely there's a great deal of want of love amongst us, that when men in the uprightness and sincerity of their hearts shall desire to find out the mind of God, and the will of God, and merely out of conscience because they dare not go any further than they see the mind of God to go before them, therefore they shall be judged to be a stiff-necked people, and to be the great hinderers of Reformation; Is this the best interpretation that possibly can be made of things? Is it not possible why there should be some other grounds why they differ from their brethren, but merely stiff-neckedness? how if it should be owned by Jesus Christ at the great day, That it was out of sincerity, because they did desire to know the mind of Jesus Christ fully, and yet they could not see what their brethren say they did? We should make the best interpretation of things that possibly we can. Love it cures all things, and it bears all things; now for such public striking against any such forbearance, and crying ³out that we would have a Toleration of all things u• Religion, this is the great argument when they know in their consciences that their brethren do join with them in the Doctrinal part of Religion, and in the main things, and those things wherein they differ are things of no such great moment, but may be forborne with peace enough if mens hearts were peaceable and still; now to in fuse that into the peoples heads that if they were but in any thing forborne there must be a toleration of all things, surely this is not any fruit of Love, this is not that which the holy Ghost saith, That Love bears all things. I am loth to mention any further, lest there should be any occasion of stirring up any spirits, and so hindering the fruit of Love: